Half Marathon Walk/Run to Help The Slum Children of Dharavi - Sunday 6th January

I was inspired to organise my ‘Donate4Dharavi’ charity run after a visit to India this summer. I travelled over 3000 miles across the country experiencing what I call the ‘Real India’, visiting incredible cities and villages each with it’s own diverse energy, charm and vibrancy. No place was more poignant that on my last city stop in Mumbai when I went on a slum tour to Dharavi. I was totally taken aback by how desperate the place was but also extremely humbled that despite their abject poverty, the people are truly proud of what they call ‘home'.

I immediately felt a compulsion to help after being taken to one of the classrooms in the slum. As soon as I saw it I immediately had an influx of ideas as to how I could use my skills as a technology teacher to help the children there. The most obvious void was the limited resources they had when it came to digital equipment. With the support of the slum dwellers and the faces of the children in my heart, I made it my mission to raise money to buy them these much needed resources.

My charity event will bring together 50 people to run or walk up to 13.1 miles on Sunday 6th January. Our awesome participants will be running 5k, 10K or 13.1 miles in a team event, all for a common purpose - to raise £500 so that we can buy digital devices for the nursery school children. I’m so excited to be going back to India in February 2019 and meeting up with the charity Reality Gives so that I can personally deliver these to the children. With your help we can make a tangible difference and help young children to enrich their thirst for learning and give them a better start in life.

I hope this is just the start of my journey working with the children. I am hoping to return at the end of next year to work with the charity's Youth Empowerment Program as a volunteer and and deliver a touch typing course to 18-35 year olds in the community centre. Touch typing is a life skill for everybody but none more so than in Dharavi where it can enable a young person to venture out of the slum into paid work and an independent future.

Any amount you can donate to help the children of Dharavi will be so gratefully received!

Thank you so much,

Wendy (07976 439586)

Working in association with Reality Gives: http://www.realitygives.org